PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – It feels like old times when Jason Day is strutting his stuff out here on the Monterey Peninsula and thrusting himself into contention. Unfortunately, he’s had to take his game to a lot of other zip codes and “to be honest, the last couple years have been a bit of a struggle,” said Day, who hasn’t won since 2018 and has seen his world ranking plummet. Which isn’t to say that he’s pushing to be nominated for any of those postseason awards. “I’m not looking at this as a comeback season. I’m just looking at it like every day, what can I do to try to get better?” So far, so good in 2022, because after playing nicely for four days at The American Express two weeks ago, Day had a chance to win last week’s Farmers Insurance Open before settling for a share of third on the strength of 70-65-67-72. It was a nice wave of confidence on which to ride into this week’s tournament where Day somehow, someway always feels good. “I just love Carmel by the Sea. I just love this area,” said Day, who is proving that once again. Backing up an opening 68 at Pebble Beach with Friday’s 5-under 66 at Monterey Peninsula, Day is at 9-under 134 at the halfway point and just seven off of a sizzling pace being set by Seamus Power (64-64) at 16-under. It’s not as close as Day has been in his recent run of success here in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-am – the Aussie has been within six of the lead through 36 in each of the last seven starts here – but there’s little doubt that his name on the leaderboard gets people’s attention. No matter what his form has been of late – and the former world No. 1 started the season at 125 – Day is a fixture here. He’s finished top 10 in eight of his 12 previous starts, including each of the last five years and he’s broken par in 38 of his 48 rounds. “I think first and foremost it’s just having a really good attitude,” said Day. “There can be some pretty rough (weather) days, but then you have days like this (pulsating sun-splashed days with nary a cloud to be found) . . . it’s absolutely stunning.” Which is not exactly how Day would describe his game the last few years. The 34-year-old, 12-time winner clearly hasn’t played well, but it’s not like he’s going to sit there and cite all the health issues that have slowed him. “I think (this stretch of play) is real positive, not only personally, but with my back and when I get off the golf course I feel good.” He doesn’t even let it bother him that he’s outside the qualifying mark for the Masters, even after his T-3 at Farmers pushed him to 83rd. that’s still short of the Top 50 threshold. “I really just have to take care of the day-to-day stuff and then hopefully that turns into really good results and the confidence spurs more good results,” said Day. “If I do end up taking (the Masters) off because my ranking is not good enough, so be it. I’m thinking about long-term, trying to get myself climbing that ladder again. That’s the main process.” He just focuses on what is going right, which is a lot of things. Yes, the string of rounds at Torrey Pines that continued at Pebble Thursday and Monterey Peninsula Friday are steps in the right direction, a very positive progress report, if you will. But best of all, “I’m super, super obsessed with the golf swing right now, which is either a good thing or a bad thing. “I don’t know how to take that. But I’m always talking to my coach every day and I’m always constantly working on it.” As he spoke, Day knew he was a good bit behind Power, the Irishman who is on a tear. Turns out, it was a seven-shot deficit and there are others in between Day and the leader, but he’s quite comfortable on this three-course stage (Saturday, he’ll play Spyglass) and takes comfort from the string of top 10s where he’s done everything but win. “I think I’m very due. I’ve played some really solid golf over my lifetime here,” laughed Day. “I’m just not going to try to think about it too much. Hopefully, it falls in my lap.”
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